WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Joey Blaze was named the Big Ten Wrestler of the Week following his flawless showing at the Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational last weekend. It is the junior 165-pounder's first time winning the conference honor.
The 2025 All-American, ranked No. 4 in the country, is 10-0 after adding five more wins at the toughest and most prestigious in-season college wrestling tournament. Blaze's CKLV title win was the eighth in Purdue history, and the Boilermakers have been attending the event since at least 1990.
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Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational champions, Purdue history |
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1990 |
Charles Jones |
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1996 |
Willie Wineberg |
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2002 |
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2003 |
Ryan Lange |
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2005 |
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2019 |
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2024 |
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2025 |
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Additionally, Blaze was the only Big Ten wrestler to win a Cliff Keen title at this year's event.
The Big Ten, which has won every national team championship of the past 18 years, is perennially recognized as the most dominant conference in college wrestling. After not having any Big Ten weekly awards from 2019 to 2024, Purdue has now earned five in the past 13 months.
Blaze registered a technical fall, a major decision and three clutch decisions to post a total score of 47-10, nabbing eight takedowns and surrendering none. Two of his wins came against ranked stars, No. 15 Ty Whalen (Princeton) in the semifinals and No. 19 Nicco Ruiz (Arizona State) in the finals.
Blaze has yet to be taken down all season, amassing 34 takedowns himself through 10 matches.
The Perrysburg, Ohio, native became the youngest Boilermaker since at least 1950 to make the NCAA finals last March, when he turned heads everywhere as a No. 8 seed by beating top-ranked Tyler Kasak (Penn State) on his way to the national championship match.
Assistant coach Matt Ramos was also tabbed Big Ten Wrestler of the Week as a redshirt senior a year ago after winning the 2024 Cliff Keen title at 125 lbs.
2024 Cliff Keen champ @Matt_Ramos2 makes a cameo in our 2025 champ’s interview. 🤣 pic.twitter.com/7VHNdvFBty
— Purdue Wrestling (@PurdueWrestling) December 7, 2025
Blaze now joins an honorable list as the 18th Boilermaker to be named Big Ten Wrestler of the Week.
PREVIOUS PURDUE WINNERS
January 1996 – Tony Vaughn
Feb. 8, 2001 – Jake Vercelli
Jan. 15, 2003 – Chris Fleeger
Feb. 12, 2003 – Ryan Lange
Dec. 23, 2003 – Sean Schmaltz
Feb. 5, 2004 – Brad Harper
Nov. 9, 2005 – Ben Wissel
Dec. 19, 2006 – Nathan Moore
Nov. 7, 2007 – Jake Patacsil
Nov. 4, 2008 – Jake Fleckenstein
Nov. 10, 2009 – Colton Salazar
Nov. 29, 2011 – Matt Fields
Dec. 2, 2014 – Danny Sabatello
Jan. 20, 2015 – Danny Sabatello
Nov. 5, 2019 – Kendall Coleman
Nov. 12, 2019 – Dylan Lydy
Dec. 10, 2019 – Dylan Lydy
Nov. 14, 2024 – Matt Ramos
Dec. 12, 2024 – Matt Ramos
Nov. 13, 2025 - Stoney Buell
Nov. 13, 2025 - Isaiah Schaefer (Freshman of the Week)